Boy Scouts Under Fire; Ban on Gays Is at Issue

By SARA RIMER; Katherine Zoepf contributed to this article.

Published: July 3, 2003

PHILADELPHIA, July 2—
After two years of meetings, civic leaders and Boy Scout executives here drafted a policy saying that the local scout council would not discriminate against gays. The goal was to forge a quiet compromise that would satisfy all parties: corporations and foundations that had withdrawn their support because of the national organization's ban on gays, gay rights advocates and the national scouting leadership.

But instead, the local scouting council, serving more than 87,000 boys, is under siege.

First its computers were jammed by thousands of e-mail messages from religious conservatives furious over the nondiscrimination policy. Then, under pressure from the national leadership, the local council withdrew the policy. And now, there is a movement endorsed by editorials in the city's two major newspapers to end the local council's rent-free use of the prime city land where it has had its headquarters since 1928.

Three years after a landmark Supreme Court ruling saying the Boy Scouts could keep out gays, the organization is in turmoil over the question of whether gay men are appropriate role models as scout leaders. The debate rages even as supporters of gay rights are hailing last week's Supreme Court ruling striking down state laws banning homosexual sex as a clear demonstration of how American attitudes toward gays are evolving.

As the former chairman of the United Way here, David L. Cohen helped draft the antidiscrimination policy. ''The recent Supreme Court ruling and reactions to that ruling around the country demonstrate pretty clearly how out of touch with the times the national scouting leadership has become,'' said Mr. Cohen, an executive vice president of the Comcast Corporation.

Gregg Shields, a spokesman for the national organization, the Boy Scouts of America, said last week's court decision ''has nothing to do with the Boy Scouts and who we are or what we do.''

The struggles of urban scouting councils in places like Philadelphia, Miami and Los Angeles to satisfy their constituencies -- donors, gay activists, scouting devotees of varying religious and political beliefs -- demonstrate how painful, tangled and divisive the gay rights issue remains for the Boy Scouts.

Supporters of the ban on gays say the Scouts need to stand up for core values.

''To be morally straight, trustworthy, loyal, clean and reverent -- those are the values that are important to me and important to the parents I serve,'' said Ron Coleman, a representative of the Atlanta area council, quoting the Boy Scout oath and law. Homosexuality, Mr. Coleman, 56, said, ''is not consistent with morally straight.''

Critics of the policy say the Scouts, a long-cherished American institution, are betraying their core values of tolerance and inclusion.

''It's the Boy Scouts of some Americans,'' said James Dale, the former Eagle scout and assistant scout leader from New Jersey who became the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case after he was expelled from scouting for being openly gay. ''It's not the Boy Scouts of America.''

With more than three million young members, scouting is no longer just troops of suburban boys building campfires in the woods under the watchful eye of the parents who volunteer as scout leaders.

For tens of thousands of boys in the inner cities scouting offers not only rare access to the outdoors, but an alternative to the gangs and drugs that have devastated their neighborhoods. Scouting provides male guidance in neighborhoods where men are often absent.

It is these scouts who are the biggest casualties in the battle over gay rights, said Mr. Cohen. Suburban troops rely on parents who volunteer their time and money. But in the inner city, where volunteers and money are scarce, troops depend on paid leaders and corporate donations.

The effort at a compromise in Philadelphia ''was about preventing someone else's fight from damaging a very valuable youth program,'' Mr. Cohen said. ''As adults, we need to make sure that the kids we're trying to benefit and protect don't end up being casualties from 'friendly fire.' What is so sad is that I'm not sure we've succeeded in that paramount responsibility.''

Enrollment in scouting has fallen in the last five years, and while national scouting executives attribute the decline to other interests competing for children's attention, many volunteer scout leaders say the gay rights issue is also responsible.

In Oak Park, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, Kathy Egan was among a group of parents who took their sons out of the Cub Scouts three years ago to protest the ban on gays. ''This was such a painful issue for us,'' she said. ''So many of our parents, especially the dads, just loved the Scouts.''

After the Supreme Court ruling three years ago, dozens of corporations, local governments, school districts and United Way chapters across the country withdrew millions of dollars in support or the free use of schools for meetings.

Steven Spielberg, the Hollywood director and an Eagle scout, quit his post on scouting's advisory board in protest. ''Steven's high-profile departure crushed us,'' said Steve Barnes, the Scouts' executive for the Los Angeles area council, adding that Mr. Spielberg had been one of the council's largest donors.

Mr. Shields, the spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America, said that he did not have figures for how much financing has been withdrawn, but that it had been replaced in many places by other donations.

Amid the debate in Philadelphia, the local United Way has begun considering whether to halt its annual $400,000 contribution.

But what creates opposition in Philadelphia is welcomed in places like Irving, Tex., where the Boy Scouts' national council is based.

''Our values have stood for generations,'' Mr. Shields said. ''We have tremendous support from America for those values.''

Many scouting groups support the ban on gays. In Atlanta, Ron Coleman heads a group of parents who support an African-American inner city troop. His wife, June, is the scout leader.

''A lot of my scouts come from single-parent female households,'' Mr. Coleman said. ''The mothers are looking for programs where their young men can get exposure to older men who are morally and ethically correct.''

These mothers, Mr. Coleman said, do not want gays leading their sons.

The troop is chartered by a Baptist church, and Mr. Coleman added, Baptists hold that ''homosexuality is wrong.''

But many scouting groups, including the one in New York City, quietly follow informal nondiscrimination policies.

To ease the controversy, 25 council leaders, including council presidents from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York City and Boston, proposed a solution: Let the local groups that charter troops make their own decisions about appropriate troop leaders. The Baptist and Catholic churches that charter thousands of troops, for example, could choose not to elect a gay leader.

In February 2002, the national council rejected the proposal.

Critics of the ban on gays say the national council holds to it in deference to the religious conservatives, particularly those in the Mormon church, who dominate scouting. The Mormons charter more than 26,000 Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops, Mr. Shields said -- more than any group in the country. They provide not only a guaranteed supply of young members -- more than 410,000 at last count -- but also enormous financial support. The position of the Roman Catholic Church, which charters 17,000 troops with 345,000 members, is clear. Reversing the ban on gays could cost the Scouts hundreds of thousands of members, by some estimates.

John Harbison, the former chairman of the Los Angeles area council, said, ''There's no solution that is going to make everybody happy.'' The only solution that can work, Mr. Harbison and others say, has to be a quiet one.

In February 2002, the Greater New York Area Council came up with a policy saying that ''prejudice, intolerance and unlawful discrimination in any form are unacceptable.'' The policy has not generated headlines. Gay rights advocates have not tested it, and the national council has not challenged it.

What went wrong in Philadelphia, scouting executives here say, is that the policy ended up on the evening news. Gay rights groups celebrated the policy -- and protested just as loudly when it was withdrawn.

With the controversy swirling, Troop 358 held its weekly meeting recently at the Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood. ''The Boy Scouts keeps you off the streets,'' said Avery Kellam, 14, as he and a dozen other boys practiced first aid. ''It keeps you from doing negative things.''

Avery was looking forward to the troop's annual camping trip along the Delaware River. Many of the 50 boys in the troop cannot afford the $225 for the weeklong trip, said Aaron Gooding Sr., the leader, but will be able to go with help from the local council's ''camperships.''

It is these sorts of cash-strapped urban scouting programs that the antidiscrimination policy was intended to preserve, said David H. Lipson, the chairman of the local council. ''All we want to do is help kids,'' he said.

Meanwhile, he said, ''we're taking a beating from both sides.''

Photo: Grace Baptist Church was the scene of a Boy Scout troop meeting in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood, where the scout law was recited. (Don Murray for The New York Times)